Can I Offer You Some Feedback? - Episode #11
Show Notes:
Appreciative Inquiry encourages us to think about the positive and what is working right. This approach, better known as AI, was first founded in the 80’s. This begins with us starting from a positive core and understanding the best outcome for a situation. The 4 different parts that make up this ideal around appreciative inquiry are discovery, dream, design and destiny. When we tie these together it helps us do more and is a key to success. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode!
Below we are offering a transcript of the podcast for accessibility and reference.
Episode #11: Business Bites: Appreciative Inquiry
Welcome to Business Bites. My name is Sara. This is the podcast for busy professionals who want the quick hits of business terminology, historical context, and strategies for integration. Today we're going to be talking about appreciative inquiry, sometimes known as AI.
Appreciative inquiry was first founded by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva in the 1980s at the Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, Ohio. One of the important things and principles of appreciative inquiry is starting from a positive core, understanding what is the best of a current situation.
There are four different parts of the cycle around appreciative inquiry, discovery, dream, design, and destiny. And each of these four are centered around this positive core, either for an individual or for an organization. When we think about discovery, this is our opportunity to think about, right now what is already working? What is that positive and what is giving us life in this moment? Again, this can be used for both individuals and for organizations thinking about making change towards the future.
Appreciative inquiry then invites us to think about dream. What might be? What could be a possible future vision for us to think about? And thinking about that holistic overall vision, again, tying to that positive core. Knowing what's already working, what our current strengths are already in place tagged along with what might be, allows us to think and dream even bigger than possible.
The third stage is design. Let's think about that future state. What should be our ideal in this moment? When we're thinking about our future state, it's important to understand where we're coming from, but also what do we want to design for and build in that future model. Design phases are opportunities to really think about tactically, how do we move from that dream phase into that design phase.
And the fourth part, destiny. How do we empower, learn, and improvise along the way? This is where our action planning comes in. We understand where we are right now, we know what that future state is going to be having done both dream and design. And now thinking about destiny, how do we manifest this into action using specific steps along the way to be able to ensure our success all throughout as we've been moving through discovery, dream, design, and destiny or tying to this positive core, the thing inside us or our organizations which helps us do more?
Oftentimes when we think about appreciative inquiry, it can be more easy to think about the opposite, which is typically a problem-solving approach or a deficit-based mindset. What's wrong in this situation? What do we need to fix? Appreciative inquiry encourage us to think about the positive. What is working here? What are our strengths? What can we build on? Whether you're in the public, private, or non-profit spaces, thinking about how you can apply appreciative inquiry is a key to success. Encouraging thoughts around what is, what might be, and what could be, maybe a different way to approach, not problem-solving, but opportunity mapping.
This has been Sara with Business Bites. And you can reach me at podcastad@mod.network. We would love to hear from you on what other terminology you'd like bite-sized. As always, give us a quick rating on your platform of choice and share this podcast with a friend.
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